Netrokona's waste treatment plant, built for about Tk 11 crore, was meant to turn the town's rubbish into organic fertiliser, earn money from recyclables and cut the stench and pollution. Instead it stopped working the day after it was opened, and the idle facility has itself become a rubbish dump.

Municipal sources say the project was taken up in 2020 with World Bank funding and opened formally after construction ended in 2024. Inside and around the plant, which covers about two acres at Bahirchapra in ward 4, lie heaps of rotting waste, plastic, polythene and household rubbish.

The municipality of about 129,000 people produces some 42 tonnes of waste a day. With the plant idle, much of it ends up by roadsides, near homes or on open dumps. Residents complain of the smell and a surge of flies and mosquitoes; homes, a bus stand and an orphanage next to the plant suffer most. Shopkeeper Anwar said customers no longer stay long because of the stench.

Environmental activist Ahidur Rahman said a waste facility left idle and filling with waste defeats its own purpose; without planned collection, sorting, processing and recycling, such a project cannot work.

Md Abdullah Al Matin, assistant director of the Department of Environment, said the department had discussed the problem with the municipality several times and asked it to stop the pollution around the site. Municipal administrator Munmun Jahan Liza said steps would be taken to get the plant running soon, but gave no timeline, nor said whether its equipment had been damaged by the long idleness. The report is by Barta24's Netrokona correspondent.

Source: Barta24